KOCHI,
FEB. 19.
Eminent cardio-thoracic surgeons of the State were honoured at the 51st annual conference of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgeons (CTCON-2005), in Kochi.

Those honoured include Balsalam, who performed the first heart surgery in Kerala, P.K.R. Warrier, T.M. Joseph and S. Achuthan Nair. M.V.S. Valiathan was honoured at the meet but he was unable to attend the function. The late T. Thomas and M.R.S. Menon too were honoured, according to a press release here.

Meanwhile, Jose Chacko Periappuram, who led the team of doctors that had carried out Kerala's first heart transplant surgery, has been elected to the executive committee of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgeons. Chung Neng Lee of the National University Hospital Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Singapore, said here that the benefits of drug eluting stents were being overly publicised.